I'd be perfectly fine with losing the "smite only if crit" ability. Tbh this ability always felt too gamey to me.
Indeed ... it would be perfectly acceptable ...
But Zellin's idea sounds better. :P
Nah. It doesn’t.
I mean, it’s more or less a mechanical equivalent (assuming he meant for the ability to become a free action in the subsequent turn or something?) but it creates this weird disconnect where the smite is not part of your attack/reaction anymore, but becomes basically a separate cast.
It also doesn’t account for a scenario where in the following turn your paladin wouldn’t be able to act anymore for whatever reason (I.e. dead or incapacitated after someone else targeted him).
P.S. On a personal note I still think that the best solution would be in fact to implement a reaction system and present in in "smooth" way that Larian would find palatable with its "triple A production value", rather than imagining several ways to sidestep the issue entirely.
I know people that on the Larian discord bitched to no end that "Solasta reaction system is a chore" because "it pauses the combat", for instance, and while personally I find it an incredibly stupid argument (I'm still not sure how having more things to do and chances to intervene during a tactical combat would be in any way a change for the worse) that's probably the audience reaction Larian is worrying about.
My suggestion in another thread was just to find a more appealing way to present the reaction rather than a crude pop-up on screen, and among the different suggestions someone pointed at Chimera Squad and its breach mechanic as an example.
You could get a quick zoom in, a dramatic slow down of the opponent doing its thing and then you could just quickly click left mouse button to confirm the reaction or the right one for a "Pass").
